Colonial Warfare, pt 1

Killed a lot of wogs

Things fall apart....

Reading the newest Harper's (December issue; not on-line yet, more's the pity). A review by Greg Grandin of Niall Ferguson's Colossus: The Price of America's Empire. According to Grandin, there's quite a price to be paid.

Ferguson's argument is that we (Americans) just aren't ruthless enough, yet. Which means, yes, we could have won in Vietnam, if we'd just had the belly for it. Now America faces "the growing power of liberalism" (don't you all feel better now?), which prevents us from exercising our true authority as the benevolent Empire the Romans...oh, sorry, the British, once were.

How to overcome this and other obstacles to the Pax Americana? Apparently by reining in the deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare spending. The "less privileged" (Grandin's words, now) would be made: "leaner and meaner, more willing to shoulder the burdens of empire. Just as poverty drove the Irish and Scots into Britain's colonial army, 'illegal immigrants, the jobless,' and 'convicts' could help fill the ranks of Washington's imperial legion." (Apparently Jonathan Swift and Jeremiah were both wrong: poverty is good for sovereigns!). "Ferguson is especially enthusiastic that African Americans might become 'the Celts of the American Empire.' And once he dispense with what here passes for social democracy, he sets his sights on political democracy. Successful empires, Ferguson writes, require 'the resolve of the masters and the consent of the subjects.'"

According to Grandin, Ferguson is the "darling of the American media." Great. Wolf Blitzer's late night reading, I suppose. Makes one glad Bush isn't much of a reader; but he's surrounded by people who are, and who would take this half-baked crock of "thought" seriously. Which is what worries me. The "fringe" is moving more and more toward the center; which means, indeed, that the center cannot hold.

Too bad Mr. Ferguson only got the edited version of colonial warfare. The one where the British won. Because that isn't the real history.

Here's a quick list of the obvious

Here are some maxims of colonial warfare the US will painfully relearn:

1.Most Arabs don't want to be `liberated' or what President Bush calls `freedom.' They want freedom from US occupation, and freedom for Palestine.

2.People will accept misrule, robbery, abuse, and torture by their own fellow citizens — but not by foreigners.

3.The occupying power will always find locals ready to cooperate and join the colonial police and army for money. Ten percent will serve loyally; 50% will do nothing. The rest will covertly fight the occupiers, provide the resistance with intelligence, or quietly sabotage the occupation.

4.Most of those who cooperate with the occupation will maintain secret links with the resistance. Massive defections will occur the minute the occupiers show the first signs of thinking about withdrawal.

5.Tribal, clan, ethnic and religious loyalties will also prove stronger than political ones imposed by the occupier. You cannot buy loyalty; you can only rent it.

6.An inevitable byproduct of colonial adventures is an unwanted, usually massive influx of people from the conquered country.

7.Colonial occupations almost always cost far more than planned and produce negative earnings for the invader. Occupying Iraq and Afghanistan now costs at least US $6 billion monthly. The costs of garrisoning and running colonies usually exceeds what can be looted from them.

8.It's always cheaper to buy resources than plunder them. The Soviets thought they would pay for their invasion of Afghanistan by stealing its natural gas. The Washington neo-conservatives who engineered the Iraq war ludicrously claimed its stolen oil would fully cover the costs of invasion and occupation.

9.Guerilla wars waged among civilians inevitably produce hatred for occupiers and corrupt the invaders. Torture, brutality, mass reprisals against civilians, and black marketeering become epidemic, even among the best-discipline troops. The longer occupation troops stay on, the more they become corrupted, brutalized, and addicted to drugs — so do the nations that sent them.

10.Americans make poor colonialists. They lack the historical and cultural knowledge, subtlety, patience and Third World street smarts to be first-rate colonizers, like the French or British. They lack the ruthlessness and brutality of Dutch, Japanese, Spaniards, or Russian colonialists. Or the ability to blend with the local population, as did Portugese.

Colonial Wars were bloody long and only temporarily quelled uprisings.

Here's a list of the 19th Century's colonial wars

Africa

Cape Frontier Wars
1834-1878

The Great Trek
1835-40

British in Abyssinia
1868

1st & 2nd Ashanti Wars
1873-4/1900

Egyptians in Abyssinia
1875-6

Zulu War
1879

Rise of the Mahdists
1880-4

Transvaal or 1st Boer War
1880-1

Arabi’s Revolt
1882

Zulu Civil War
1883-4

Gordon Relief Expedition
1884-5

Mahdist Invasion of Abyssinia
1887-9

Mahdist Invasion of Egypt
1888-9

The French in Dahomeay
1890-2

The Batetelan Uprisings
1895/1897-1900

Mozambican Revolts
1895-99

Italian Invasion of Abyssinia
1896

French Conquest of Chad
1897-1914

Great (2nd) Boer War (South African War)
1899-1902

Fall of the Mahdists
1899-1900

Mad Mullah
1901-4

India
Afghan Invasion of the Punjab
1837

Baluchistan
1839-41

Annexation of Sind
1843

Sikh Invasion of Tibet
1841-2

1st Afghan War
1839-42

1st & 2nd Sikh Wars
1845-6/1848-9

2nd Burmese War
1852-3

Persian War
1855-7

Indian Mutiny
1857-8

2nd Afghan War
1878-80

Police Actions in Burma
1887-92

Russian Invasion of Afghanistan
1885

3rd Burma War
1885-6

China

1st Opium War
1839-42

Taipeng Rebellion
1851-65

2nd China or Opium War (Arrow War)
1860

Sino-Japanese War
1894

Boxer Rebellion
1900

Russo-Japanese War
1904-5

North America

Navajo Wars
1846-64

Cayuse Wars
1847

Rogue River Wars
1851-6

Sioux Wars
1854-90

Southern Plains War
1860-79

Apache Wars
1861-1900

The Maximillian Adventure/French Intervention in Mexico
1862-7

Modoc War
1872-3

Red River War
1874-5

Nez Perce War
1877

The Spanish-American War
1898-1902

South Seas

Samoa
1847-99

South-East Asia

The French in Annam
1858-62

Sino-French War
1883-5

posted by Steve @ 3:00:00 AM